Holdings Information
Bibliographic Record Display
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Author/Creator:McClintock, Walter, 1870-1949.
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Title:Walter McClintock papers, 1874-1949 (bulk 1888-1982).
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Physical Description:87.5 linear feet (207 boxes) + 9 broadsides
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Links:View a description and listing of collection contents in the finding aid
View digital images from the Beinecke Library's Digital Images Online database
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Yale Holdings
Holdings Record Display
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Notes:Chiefly in English; some material in German.
Gift of Walter McClintock (Yale 1891, 1911 MAH), 1927-1949.
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Organization:Organized into ten series: Series I. Papers, 1874-1949. Series II. Scrapbooks, 1899-1925. Series III. Photograph Albums, 1888-1910. Series IV. Exhibition Photographic Prints, 1918-1946. Series V. Vintage Photographic Prints, 1898-1915. Series VI. Lantern Slides, 1905-1941. Series VII. Glass Transparencies, 1898-1909. Series VIII. Photographic Negatives, 1896-1915. Series IX. Collected Photographs, circa 1888-circa 1940. Series X. Archival Copy Photographs, circa 1981-1982.
- Access and use:This material is open for research.
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Biographical / Historical note:Walter McClintock (1870-1949, Yale 1891, 1911 MAH) was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1896 he traveled west as a photographer for a federal commission investigating national forests. McClintock became friends with the expedition's Piegan Indian scout, William Jackson (1860-1899), also known as Sik-Sik-Ka-Kwan (Little Black Foot), a quarter-blood Piegan Indian and a former United States Army Indian Scout. When the commission completed its field work, Jackson introduced McClintock to the Blackfoot community of northwestern Montana. Over the next twenty years, supported by the Blackfoot elder Mad Wolf, McClintock made several thousand photographs of the Blackfoot, their homelands, their material culture, and their ceremonies. Like many of his contemporaries, McClintock believed that Indian communities were undergoing swift, dramatic transformations that might obliterate their traditional culture. He sought to create a record of their culture that might disappear. He wrote books, mounted photographic exhibitions, and delivered numerous public lectures about the Piegan Indians.
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Summary:The papers and photographs in this collection document the history and customs of the Piegan Indians (also known as the Blackfeet Indians) in Montana, and their contact with Europeans and Anglo Americans. The collection provides detailed information about McClintock's photographic practice, as well as his public presentations about the Piegan Indians. A significant part of the collection records the development and production of Poia, an opera based on Piegan Indian legends, composed by Arthur Nevin, with a libretto by Randolph Hartley.
The photographic material in the collection provides rich visual documentation of the activities of Piegan Indians in the early twentieth century, as well as views of the landscape in western Montana and southern Alberta. McClintock used these images for lantern slides to accompany his lectures, to create prints for his photographic exhibitions, and to illustrate his publications.
Photograph albums in the collection document the activities of McClintock as student at Yale College from 1887 to 1891, as well as his participation in the Princeton University Expedition in Utah and Yellowstone National Park in 1895 and a tour by the National Forest Commission in the western United States in 1896. Many albums also detail the activities of the Piegan Indians. Scrapbooks document Poia, his lecture series, photographic exhibitions, and books.
The collection includes contemporary archival reproductions of most of the original negatives created by McClintock, as well as a set of contemporary photographic prints made from the reproduced negatives. The contemporary prints represent the most complete set of prints of McClintock's work in the collection.
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Other formats:Portions available on microfilm from Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.
- Format:Archives or Manuscripts
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Indexes/Finding aids:Finding aid available.
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Cite as:Walter McClintock Papers. Yale Collection of Western Americana, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
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Subjects:Hartley, Randolph, 1870-1931.
Hartley, Randolph, 1870-1931. Poia.
Huhn, Eugenie von.
Humperdinck, Engelbert, 1854-1921.
Jackson, William, 1860-1899.
McClintock, Walter, 1870-1949.
McClintock, Walter, 1870-1949. Old Indian trails.
McClintock, Walter, 1870-1949. Old north trail.
Nevin, Arthur, 1871-1943.
Nevin, Arthur, 1871-1943. Poia.
Siyeh, -1902.
National Forest Commission.
Southwest Museum of the American Indian.
Yale University.
Yale University. Library.
Yale University--Pictorial works.
Yale University--Students.
Yale University--Students--Pictorial works.
Princeton Scientific Expedition (1895)
Indians of North America.
Indians of North America--Pictorial works.
Kainah Indians--Pictorial works.
Operas.
Kainah Indians.
Piegan Indians.
Siksika Indians.
Siksika Indians--Pictorial works.
Siksika Indians--Songs and music.
Alberta--Description and travel.
Alberta--Pictorial works.
Montana--Description and travel.
Montana--Pictorial works.
West (U.S.)--Description and travel.
West (U.S.)--Pictorial works.
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Genre/Form:Lantern slides.
Photograph albums.
Photographic prints.
Scrapbooks.
Link to this page: https://hdl.handle.net/10079/bibid/3208571